how racism affects the lives of African Americans
Introduction Racism affects African American life through institutions, cultural representation, economic distribution, bodily regulation, and everyday interaction. Patricia Hill Collins’s Black Sexual Politics provides a useful framework because it shows that racism cannot be separated from gender, sexuality, and class. Images of Black men as inherently violent or hypersexual and Black women as sexually available, irresponsible, or excessively strong do not merely insult individuals. They help justify unequal policing, labor

